Selecting device



06. 22, 1935. M TEWBERG 2,018,038

I SELECTING DEVICE I Filed NOV. 24, 1935 m vrsmoa. 97702715 iazzzbery m WA ATTORNEY.

Patented Oct. 22, 1935 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 3 Claims.

This invention relates to game devices, and more particularly to accessories adapted to assist in the playing of educational and other games.

An important object of the invention is the provision of an improved extremely simple, compact and easily read selecting device, by means of which any one of a larger number of consecutive integers, or values of any desired sort, may be selected from a large group, entirely by chance.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent from the following description, wherein reference is made to the accompanying drawing illustrating preferred embodiments of my invention, and wherein similar reference numerals designate similar parts throughout the several views.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a plan view of a selecting device incorporating the principles of this invention;

Figure 2 is a section taken substantially on the line 2-2 of Figure 1, looking in the direction of the arrows;

Figure 3 is an enlarged view of a portion of Figure 2, showing the details of the pivot, and

Figure 4 is a view similar to Figure 1, partly broken away, showing a somewhat modified construction.

Referring to the drawing, reference character 5 designates a fiat base, which may be formed of cardboard and in the present instance forms the bottom of a box adapted to contain the device. The side walls of the box are designated 6. Mounted on the base is a circular chart I peripherally divided into any desired number of divisions, but preferably provided with a plurality of concentric charts, the outer of which, designated 9, is graduated in successive integers, from 1 to 100, for example, as shown.

Inside and spaced from the outer scale 9 of the chart may be an inner chart I provided with a lesser number of divisions having greater values. In the embodiment shown the inner chart is subdivided into four divisions, three of which, indicated by their numerical values, 100, 200, and 300, designate values to be added to that of the outer scale selected by the large spinning pointer I5, while the fourth, designated I I, is of no value.

The shorter arrow or pointer I4 sweeps the inner scale I9, while the longer arrow I cooperates with the outer unit scale 9. Both arrows are freely rotatable, being shown mounted on a vertical bearing sleeve I6 surrounding a hollow post I9a projecting upwardly from the center of the chart, and the pointers are spaced from each other by means of washers as I! which insure their free independent movement.

When the arrows are spun they of course come to rest at haphazard positions dictated by chance. The figures indicated by the two pointers may then be added and the result taken as the selected figure, which may in the construction shown 5 comprise any figure between- 1 and 400. Thus the device may be used, for example, to select one from a large listof numbered questions, without possibility of the chosen number being determined by anything but chance, and it will be 10 seen that despite the very compact nature of the device, an extremely large field of selection is provided for. In Figure 1 the shorter arrow overlies the 100 section of the inner chart, while the longer arrow points to the figure 77 on the outer scale. The total, 1'77, may be taken as indicating that the player of such a game as is suggested above is to answer question numbered 177. If the shorter pointer comes to rest in the section I I, only the value indicated by the longer arrow is read. With the divisions on both scales of equal area, the laws of chance make the likelihood of selection of all numbers equal.

In the modification shown in Figure 4 an intermediate scale I2 has been interposed between the inner scale Illa and outer scale 9a. The intermediate scale in effect divides each area of the inner chart into two sections, denominated A and B.

The intermediate scale I2 adds great flexibility to the operation of the device. It may be stipulated, for example, that if the short arrow I la comes to rest in one of the sections B of the intermediate chart, an arbitrary value (400, for example) is to be added to whatever value on the innermost chart this arrow also happens to designate, and the total added to the value indicated by the larger arrow upon the outer scale.

It may be considered that when the arrow I4a points to an A division, nothing is to be added to the inner scale divisionoverlain by the arrow,

or any desired value may be attached to the A division. The utilization of such arbitrary and otherwise meaningless designations as A and B making this great adaptability possible, as

above noted.

In Figure 4, the short arrow I40; will be seen to point to the B division of the 200 section of the inner chart. This may be taken to indicate, as stated, that four hundred is to be added to the two hundred, while to the total is in turn added the figure to which the larger arrow I5a points in this instance 5, making a total of 605. If the device is used to select from a numbered list a single question to be answered by the player of V are well calculated to'adequately fulfill the ob a game, this would indicate that the player should answer question number 605. It will be at once be apparent that with the modification under consideration as many as 1,000 questions may be incorporated in the list from which selection is to be made, and that despite this large field of selection, no extremely fine divisions or indicia difiicult'to read are used .in the improved selector. The reading of this embodiment will therefore be seen to also be extremely simple. Other equivalent portions of this form of the device have been designated by like reference numerals to those used in describing the first embodiment, but followed by the letter a, and are thought not to require separate description. 1 1

While it will be apparent that the illustrated embodiments of my invention herein disclosed jects and advantages primarily set forth, it is to be understood that the invention is susceptible to variation, modification and change within the spirit and scope of the sub'joined claims.

7 What I claim is: V

1. A selecting device comprising a pair of in:- dependently rotatable pointers mounted upon a substantially common axis and one longer than 7 another, a plurality of substantially concentric inner charts arranged in the area swept by the shorter pointer, and an outer chart arranged substantially in the path of an extremity of the longer pointer, one of said inner charts being divided into stepped values numerically evenly spaced,

inner charts arranged in the area swept by the 10 shorter pointer, and an outer chart arranged substantially in the path of an extremity of the long:

er pointer, one of said inner charts being divided into stepped values numerically evenly spaced,

another being arranged to divide each of the di- 15 visions of said first mentioned into an equal number of divisions bearing numerically meaningless arbitrary designations, and the outer chart being divided into steps representing divisions of said first mentioned inner chart.

3. In a selecting device, a base adapted to support chart means, a hollow post fixed in said base, a sleeve surrounding said post,'a plurality of independently rotatable pointers of different lengths surrounding said sleeve and provided with $5 apertures of slightly greater diameter than said I sleeve, and a plurality of washers loosely mounted upon said sleeve and spacing said pointers from each other and the stationary portions of the selecting device.

MORRIS STEINBERG. 

